Obama unveils 23 executive actions on guns

posted at 1:11 pm on January 16, 2013 by Erika Johnsen

In full, the White House’s fact sheet and executive summary of the gun-control proposals Obama announced in his presser Wednesday afternoon, with a reinstatement of an assault-weapons ban, universal background checks, and 10-bullet limits on magazine capacities figuring prominently:

I don’t know what was harder to stomach about that speech: President Obama’s completely glib suggestion that “this is the land of the free and it always will be,” as if American exceptionalism is somehow a simple given that does not require constant vigilance, or his lamenting all of the divisiveness around gun-control politics but then turning around and blaming groups like the NRA for “ginning up fear” and daring not to abide by progressive notions of safety and security.

Rubio, often mentioned as a likely 2016 presidential candidate, said it would have been better if Obama had decided to announce his proposals without being accompanied by children. …

“I think ultimately he has a right to do that, and I understand he has a right to do that,” Rubio said. “I think most of us would have preferred if it just had been a straightforward address to the country because it implies that somehow those of us who do not agree with his public policy prescriptions don’t equally care about children.” …

Rubio called Democrats’ interest in pushing a new assault-weapons ban “misplaced.”

“I think it’s completely misplaced. Because here’s the issue in this public policy debate that’s different from others: There is a constitutional right to bear arms,” Rubio said. “I did not create that and he cannot erase that. It is in the Constitution. If they want to change the Constitution, if they want to believe the Second Amendment should not be in there or if they believe it should be rewritten in the 21st century then let them have the guts to stand up and propose that.”